Officials of the food safety department undertook a surprise visit to a restaurant in Mallital area of the lake city and collected samples of cooked food items. However, this irked the traders in the locality, who gheraoed the food safety inspector Ashwini Singh and other department staff while raising questions at their action.
According to sources, when the food safety inspector reached a restaurant at Gadipadav in Mallital and collected samples of cooked food, the owner of the restaurant alleged that the department had raided his restaurant in retribution. He went on to aver that a staff member of the food safety department had come to the restaurant a couple of days ago and after having a meal there had entered into an argument with the restaurant manager regarding the bill. He alleged that the raid had been conducted by the department in retribution for the recent incident involving its staff. On Wednesday, the restaurant owner informed the Vyapar Mandal head KS Negi, general secretary Sonu Bisht and other members of the business fraternity. The members of the local business fraternity reached the restaurant where they opposed the raid the sample collection conducted by the food safety department. The food safety inspector and other department staff then soon left the restaurant. Sources state that later on the department staff also collected sample from a shop on Mall Road.